March 11, 1954
Somewhere near Cuba
 |
| Gitmo, circa 1954 |
Hi Sweet thing,
How's the world treating the one I love?
I should have answered your letter sooner, but we have been at sea all the time so you wouldn't have gotten it any sooner. And we have been working pretty hard with this new air group.
Today is the first day we didn't fly. I played volleyball all afternoon and I'm pooped out.
We had a nice fire yesterday. One [plane] piled up and caught fire but no one was hurt and the day before a plane hit the drink just off the ship but the "copter" fished out all three of the crew, so I guess we have been pretty lucky after all.
Honey, the weather sure is nice here, especially at night, real cool, just right for sleeping. Wish you were here to help me enjoy it. Maybe someday if we get a vacation, we could come down here for a couple of days. But not to where we are going, our port will be Guantanamo Bay, which is no good. But they say Havana is a nice town. I don't know for sure about Havana. There's always a good chance of getting killed in a revolt in that place. And I can think of better ways to die.
[Editor's note: Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution began in July, 1953, only eight months before Jim wrote this letter and Castro's success was not a forgone conclusion by any means.]
Gosh, doll, we were discussing my going to Europe. I don't know if we will go or not. When I find out, I'll let you know. Either way, I would like to see you before we shove off again. And if you can come out here (and I know you can), please do. You will only be able to stay for a couple or three days, but that would be better than not seeing you at all.
Well, gal, I gotta sign off for this time. Answer real soon.
Your loving seaman,
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